HD DVD Player Sales Grind To a Halt 507
Lucas123 writes "While the news may fall under the 'Duh' category, it's still relatively shocking how quickly the death knell for HD DVD player sales came on after Warner Bros. announced they were dropping dual hi-def DVD format support in order to back only Blu-ray. According to a Computerworld story, the week after Warner's announcement, sales of HD DVD players dropped to 1,758, down from 14,558 players the week before. In contrast, consumers bought 21,770 Blu-ray Disc players, up from 15,257 the previous week."
"blue ray player" totals (Score:4, Interesting)
That said, of course the loss of another studio from HD DVD to Blue Ray likely didn't hurt sales of stand-alone blue ray players, either.
one week (Score:4, Interesting)
Pretty much describes me... (Score:4, Interesting)
Warner Brothers moving to BluRay, along with rumors of Universal and Paramount possibly following suit, have really been a good sign.
I bought PS3 (and Rock Band!) pretty quickly after the news came out.
Don't Count HD-DVD Out Yet (Score:5, Interesting)
In this vacuum of information, there's no surprise that HD-DVD sales collapsed, and it isn't because of the loss of Warner's catalog.
Since then the outcome is much less certain, however. Toshiba hasn't just conceded (and they shouldn't -- just prior to Warner's announcement it was 50/50), but instead they've come out swinging, dropping the price of their units by half (obviously it has to be cheap to compete with a format that largely was acquired for "free" as an added value of a game system). This price puts a very capable HD-DVD player with ethernet, HDMI, optical audio, and so on, as cost competitive with a decent upscaling DVD player -- and the Toshiba unit is a very good upscaling player. Add the 7 or more free HD-DVD movies that'll work forever even if HD-DVD dies, and a catalog of 1000 or so HD-DVD movies already on the market, it's a hell of a deal. If someone could hack this baby to be a media head unit it would absolutely own [yafla.com].
Reports are that sales have been absolutely massive, and Toshiba's campaign has been a success. Warner since has extended their HD-DVD support by almost a month, and other very positive rumors have circulated about HD-DVD.
Don't write HD-DVD off quite yet.
As an aside, one thing that really pisses me off about this war are claims that the end of the format war would be good for consumers. This is as logical as saying that Windows and IE should be universal -- good for consumers. Worse, Blu-ray has so many consumer-unfriendly facets (cost, no combo discs, a standard that's still in flux, early adopters getting screwed, the nebulous DRM of BD+) that it winning can never be perceived as a consumer win. Yeah, I'm biased because I didn't choose a format to win based upon a game unit I happened to buy.
Re:"blue ray player" totals (Score:5, Interesting)
If you count the PS3s, then you also increase the denominator when determining the ratio of players to media purchases, the attach rate.
I think the only honest way to report on blu-ray is to include PS3s and accept a lower attach rate (if there is one). Frankly, most blu-ray players are PS3s, and it's simply an obvious selection for those who aren't interested in video games, so excluding it is insane.
I know of several PS3 owners. Some of them only have the free blu-rays. Fair enough. None of them are unaware of the HD disc abilities, but some just don't watch movies. The statistics reflect this reality, so I see no reason to adjust things strangely.
Re:"blue ray player" totals (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm sure there are links out there to some blog, but who knows if those are any more reputable.
Re:Take with a grain of salt or two... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:"blue ray player" totals (Score:5, Interesting)
The HD-DVD campaign failed as soon as it became evident the PS3 was not going to flop, at least that's my view of the situation. When the PS3 looked doomed and 600$, it wasn't hard to believe that the HD0DVD camp would prevail.
But how do you compete with the PS3? It's not that expensive next to a great TV and movie collection, and it does all that media stuff + is a future proof blu-ray player. Almost unfair. I wonder why the 360 didn't come out with built in HD-DVD? I beleive it HD-DVD would have dominated had that been the case.
is it finally time to buy a new dvd player? (Score:3, Interesting)
I have a feeling that later would be better because lots of companies who were holding back or weren't producing Blu-Ray players will probably now... Any ideas?
MS has said from the start that the 360 can switch (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What will Microsoft do with the Xbox? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:"blue ray player" totals (Score:2, Interesting)
P O R N O ! (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Don't Count HD-DVD Out Yet (Score:3, Interesting)
01/24/08
http://www.dailygame.net/news/archives/007137.php [dailygame.net]
Sales data for HD-DVD and Blu-ray players and movies has been misconstrued lately by various outlets, with reports implying that HD-DVD sales have fallen at an amazing pace while Blu-ray sales have blasted through the roof.
Not so fast, says the NPD Group.
While select articles have implied that HD-DVD as a format is doomed and the sky is falling for the format's supporters, the NPD Group this afternoon reinforced that sales results from a single week do not necessarily indicate a trend, and that the week in question had several intriguing variables that have gone unreported.
The NPD Group attempted to quiet the storm of online scuttlebutt with the following statement:
"As you may have seen, there are attempts being made to portray NPD's weekly sales tracking figures for next generation DVD as a trend. We want to remind you and make clear that it is not accurate to make long term assumptions based on one week of sales -- a cautionary point that NPD has made as well.
"The facts are that during the week that is being singled out, both Blu-ray disc players and software were being given away for free with the purchase of 1080p TVs. It is also important to note that the instant rebate promotions that had previously netted Toshiba's players' MSRPs to $199 and $249 had actually ended on Jan. 5th -- causing an increase in HD DVD's MSRP back to $299 and $399 during that same week. Since Toshiba's retail price move on Jan. 13th to $149 / $199 -- Toshiba is seeing very positive sales trends at retail. This reinforces the fact that price is a significant driver of sales.
"Toshiba's HD DVD players represent a significant value to the consumer and the marketing campaign that just began is proving effective."
Re:"blue ray player" totals (Score:5, Interesting)
I generally agree, but there might be more illuminating ways to break it down. There are PS3's that are sold packaged with movies. An 'attach rate' that counts those but not PS3s sold with game packages might be interesting. Also interesting might be the 'attach rate' counting sales of the PS3 Blu-Ray remote control, which while not required is probably a high-priority item for people who bought the PS3 largely to play media.
But in the end, I'm not sure the immediate attach rate matters much. A lower attach rate means higher opportunity, since I suspect most PS3 owners will buy at least one Blu-Ray movie just to see what all the fuss is about and the existing attach rate is less than 1.0.
And with Sony selling more PS3s per quarter than HD DVD players have ever been built (is that statistic still valid?) the sales of standalone players hardly matters anymore.
Re:"blue ray player" totals (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway, I never bought a memory stick or PSP-format game, but Blu-Ray seems to be closer to Sony "getting it".
Re:DVDs Still Work Just Fine (Score:5, Interesting)
When my DVD player burns out, I'll buy an HD player if it's the same price and plays my existing DVDs. After that, maybe I'd buy some HD discs. Otherwise, I'll just keep waiting. That's the attitude of 99.9% of consumers.
Re:"blue ray player" totals (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I bought a PS3, and only for HD movies -nt (Score:5, Interesting)
I wanted a Blu-Ray player, and the PS3 was only $80 more than a pure player, and it got good ratings on the quality of movie playback. I figured the extra $80 was worth getting a game console and media center thrown in. Seems like good economic sense to me.
Re:Don't Count HD-DVD Out Yet (Score:2, Interesting)
It's a completely artificial split, however.
Imagine if every media company released every disc in DVD, Blu-ray and HD-DVD (the cost to them is marginal. For all of the common bluster about the difficulty supporting both new formats, the reality is that almost every media company does -- you can find HD-DVD discs overseas for Blu-ray exclusive studios, and vice versa). Hell, when I buy HD-DVD discs, the other side has DVD on it.
That would be the idea situation, letting the consumer really choose. Instead their hand is being forced not on the relative merits and economics of the format, but rather a battle between the media companies.
Re:"blue ray player" totals (Score:3, Interesting)
The remote is an interesting point. All good points, but that kind of information is probably too valuable to give away. I imagine Warner Bros. knows this stuff.
I guess we're getting to the point where it is Blu-Ray vs. DVD or internet and HD-DVD isn't important. It is going to be very hard to determine how many blu-ray homes are out there with the PS3 factor.
Toshiba's Reply (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:"blue ray player" totals (Score:5, Interesting)
HD-DVD will be the RCA SelectaVision of the high definition DVD-like disk era. Remember those? Flimsy 12" disks encased in a plastic carrier and read by a stylus, they'd fall apart after a few plays. This allowed Pioneer to own the videodisc market with LaserDisc.
Heh, Sony has gotten its revenge for Betamax.
Re:"blue ray player" totals (Score:5, Interesting)
Even still the PS3 does offer more open standard support than their competitors. You can use Generic hard drives, generic bluetooth devices, generic memory units, generic usb devices, etc. while it's mostly proprietary on the 360 and Wii.
Sony's Biggest folly IMO is their abhorrent lack of organization both blu-ray and the PS3 in their release configurations were running on un-finalized specs, blu-ray is just now finalizing it's spec and basically obsoleting most of the early players, and disc releases and the PS3 still feels incomplete and probably wont feel "finished" until the release of home/full integration of the x-media bar. At least the HD-DVD spec was finalized and all the players and media supported that spec on day 1.
Re:sales (Score:3, Interesting)
HD-DVD is going under, but if the movies drop in price, people will snap them up and sit them on their shelves as their high definition copy of whatever movie it is. If they can snap all those up for a low price it's worth it. The Big Lots phenomenon
That said, I am personally unlikely to buy any more HD DVD's. I'd bought a few already, but I didn't have a player. Just bought the combo disks that also had one side with the DVD version on it, in anticipation of one day buying an HD player. I'm picky on rebuying media so I figured the extra few bucks would be worth the gamble. Looks like I lost, but the Blu-Ray players will still play the DVD side of those movies so it's not a total loss.
Re:Real Cheap at Best Buy (Score:4, Interesting)
And there's talk of a PS3 without a hard drive and a few less features for even less money in the future(reminds me of the PS2 "slim" model release). Sony ended up making the right choice here as it forced people to buy the player as well with the console and lock millions of people into Blu-Ray.
IMO, it was the computer crowd that finally pushed it over the edge to win it. Blu-Ray burners and media can be found fairly easily, and with the backing of most of the computer giants as well, it was only a mater of time before it won out.
P.S. The actual laser assembly itself, which is what makes the drive different than a DVD drive aside from a few basic decoding chips and such *retails* for about $70. A $100 Blu-Ray reader should be no problem at all.(once analog TV is dropped in a year, it'll happen for sure)
Re:DVD still works fine for me (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm glad to see BluRay is winning the HD format war, the titles I've purchased on BluRay (Fifth Element, Underworld, Some Disney Flicks for my kids) are far superior to DVD and getting them on sale for $15-$20 isn't much more than their DVD counterparts. On the other hand, the PS3 makes DVD's look and sound excellent as well so there's no need to re-buy the movies we've grown to love unless the media falls apart. Add in the ability to play Mpeg-4 off my NAS box and the PS3 may finally make Sony's dream of a single media power house in your living room reality.
Re:I bought a PS3, and only for HD movies -nt (Score:3, Interesting)
An Athlon 2100+ wouldn't come close to handling it with an older video card. It probably couldn't even with an 8800 GTX GPU or one of the new G92 cards.
You're looking at more like X2 4800+ (probably even higher) on the AMD side of things...